On the robust control of two manipulators holding a rigid object

In this paper, a control architecture is developed for the closed chain motion of two six-joint manipulators holding a rigid object in a three-dimensional workspace. Dynamic and kinematic constraints are combined with the equations of motion of the manipulators to obtain a dynamical model of the entire system in the joint space. Reduced-order dynamic equations are then developed with regard to the position and force control variables. Robust control laws are then determined such that the force and position control design is decoupled. The control laws that will be discussed are: a robust position tracking controller that yields an exponentially stable position tracking error result, and a robust force tracking controller that yields adjustable bounds on the force tracking error.